1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the improvement of a vehicular manipulation-lever mounting assembly on which the shift lever and transfer lever of a transmission are mounted.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, four wheel drive vehicles capable of switching the drive state between a four wheel drive state and a two wheel drive state has a manipulation-lever mounting device body 3 on which a shift lever 1 for shifting the transmission and a transfer lever 2 for causing a transfer device to selectively set the drive state of the vehicle to the four wheel drive state or the two wheel drive state are mounted as shown in FIG. 6. In this case, for example, the engaging states of the individual gears in the transmission assembly are varied to change the drive-power transmission path from the drive shaft of the engine assembly to the output shaft side in accordance with the shifting operation of the shift lever 1, thereby selectively setting the transmission assembly to multiple stages, for example, the low, second, third, fourth or reverse position.
The transfer lever 2 is settable to, for example, the position 2H, 4H or 4L. During the normal driving, this transfer lever 2 is held at the position 2H for the two wheel drive state in which the drive power on the engine assembly is transmitted only to the output shaft on the rear wheel side to drive the rear wheels only. When the transfer lever is switched to the position 4H mainly used on rough roads, sands, or snow-covered roads, the drive state is switched to the four wheel drive state where the drive power on the engine assembly is transmitted to the output shaft on the rear wheel side, and, at the same time, the rotation of this output shaft is transmitted via a chain or the like to the drive shaft on the front wheel side, thereby simultaneously driving the front wheels as well as the rear wheels. When the transfer lever 2 is set to the position 4L used for a case requiring particularly large tractive force, the drive state is altered to the four-wheel, low-speed drive state where the drive power on the engine assembly is transferred via a decelerating mechanism to the output shaft on the rear wheel side, and, at the same time, the rotation of this output shaft is transferred via a chain or the like to the drive shaft on the front wheel side to simultaneously drive the front and rear wheels in a low-speed state.
The manipulation-lever mounting device body 3 of this type is so designed that a support 4 for the shift lever 1 is provided at approximately the center of the body 3, and a support 5 for the transfer lever 2 is disposed beside (on the right or left side of) the support 4. In the manipulation-lever mounting device body 3, a mounting portion for the shift lever 1 and a mounting portion for the transfer lever 2 are each provided on a single location. The manipulation-lever mounting device body 3 is installed at the center portion between the driver's seat and the adjoining passenger's seat in the vehicle. If the manipulation-lever mounting device body 3 has the transfer lever support 5 located on the right side of the shift lever support 4 and is installed in a so-called right steering wheel vehicle in which the steering wheel will be disposed on the right side as viewed from the rear of the vehicle, the person on the driver's seat will easily manipulate the transfer lever 2. If this manipulation-lever mounting device body is installed in a so-called left steering wheel vehicle, on the other hand, the shift lever 1 is likely to interfere with the manipulation of the transfer lever 2 by the person on the driver's seat, thus impairing the operability of the transfer lever 2. When alteration of the vehicle's drive state to the four wheel drive from the two wheel drive, for example, is executed while the vehicle is stopped, slight deterioration of the operability of the transfer lever would not practically raise any problem. When the drive state is changed during driving, however, the transfer lever 2 with low operability will hinder the operation to switch the drive state, thus presenting a problem on the safe driving.
If the manipulation-lever mounting device body 3 specially designed to have the transfer lever support 5 located on the left side of the shift lever support 4, is installed in the left steering wheel vehicle, the operability of the transfer lever 2 would be improved. In this case, however, it is necessary to provide two separate manipulation-lever mounting device bodies, the one for the right steering wheel vehicle and the other for the left steering wheel vehicle, thus inevitably increasing the manufacturing cost.